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She used the term "sausagefest" to describe a male dominated industry. She talked about being bullied by another female and decided it was essentially random that it was happening but the other events involving men weren't. She actually states that hackers meet other hackers and make other hackers and somehow that leads to assumptions being made about women. It can be tough for men too, no industry is without its work related issues so she is just going to have to learn to get on with it and stop complaining.
For example, I had a female on my team doing community management & social media, and she wanted some help from a male developer. She needed to run some queries, and wanted the developer to help teach her SQL so she could do them herself. They were queries that she’d need to run over and over again with different nuances and waiting for him to do them every day as the need arose was a massive bottleneck for her workflow and a huge time suck for him. The developer kept saying “oh, just tell me what you need and I’ll get it for you” but she was quite adamant about being taught.
>The man I paid was in his forties, and he spoke to me in the most patronizing tone, as if I were some silly little girl who did not have the right to question his work, despite the fact that I was paying for it.
I'm not surprised in the slightest because as a young male this has happened to myself numerous times in the past before I got sick of it and decided to learn programming myself.
Generally programmers who you hire for a one-off programming job and don't really have any connection to will berate you if you call their work sub par.
In a way, I almost agree with their attitude. Because what do you honestly know? If you knew the best way to program what you think you wanted, why didn't you code it yourself?
In hindsight, the things I thought the programs I paid for should or could have done better were actually impossible and I appreciate now the bluntness of the programmers I paid to tell it to me straight.
I'm not surprised in the slightest because as a young male this has happened to myself numerous times in the past before I got sick of it and decided to learn programming myself.
Generally programmers who you hire for a one-off programming job and don't really have any connection to will berate you if you call their work sub par.
In a way, I almost agree with their attitude. Because what do you honestly know? If you knew the best way to program what you think you wanted, why didn't you code it yourself?
In hindsight, the things I thought the programs I paid for should or could have done better were actually impossible and I appreciate now the bluntness of the programmers I paid to tell it to me straight.
Some of my instincts are telling me the interaction you are describing has little to do with age, either. I think this has to do with price point. I am young myself, and (if I didn't know how to program) I'd probably end up hiring someone at the low-cost end of the spectrum, because $100/hour for good people is... wowzers.
But that premium typically buys you more than just people who discuss things more professionally. Paying professional wages gets you people who, when they notice there might be a conflict between what you describe and what's possible, propose the best solutions, instead of just sassing you. Sounds weird, but that really is one of the most valuable skills freelance engineers can develop. And the more abstract you can get with your solutions, the better -- if you pitch the idealistically abstract "you will have more money", your life gets very easy. Obviously you'll use more details in your pitch.
But that premium typically buys you more than just people who discuss things more professionally. Paying professional wages gets you people who, when they notice there might be a conflict between what you describe and what's possible, propose the best solutions, instead of just sassing you. Sounds weird, but that really is one of the most valuable skills freelance engineers can develop. And the more abstract you can get with your solutions, the better -- if you pitch the idealistically abstract "you will have more money", your life gets very easy. Obviously you'll use more details in your pitch.
I had the same happen to me, I was a 17 year old who was running my own agency (4 employees, the youngest of which was 21 at the time). That's not to take away from her experiences though, but I have experienced a lot of that myself despite being male. Great article though!
I'm not quite a 40s developer yet, but I'm approaching it rapidly. Recently, I'm ashamed to admit, I've found myself patronizing younger developers. This is something I am working on fixing.
That said, sometimes I'm patronizing, but sometimes I'm dramatically more experienced than the younger developers and I am having a hard time being patient with them to allow them to learn something I learned a very long time ago and have experience with many, many times over.
So, while I'm not willing to discount the gender bias mentioned in the article as I know it is a problem in our industry, I'd be careful to ascribe all of the patronizing attitudes to the author being female, and would bet some of them have to do with her being so very, very young and inexperienced.
That said, sometimes I'm patronizing, but sometimes I'm dramatically more experienced than the younger developers and I am having a hard time being patient with them to allow them to learn something I learned a very long time ago and have experience with many, many times over.
So, while I'm not willing to discount the gender bias mentioned in the article as I know it is a problem in our industry, I'd be careful to ascribe all of the patronizing attitudes to the author being female, and would bet some of them have to do with her being so very, very young and inexperienced.
tl;dr:
* Bullies bully due to their own insecurities.
* People make assumptions. These assumptions are guided by their experiences, prejudices and stereotypes.
* The media will distort your message into the story they want to put out, regardless of whether it's what you intended on saying or not.
* Speaking out about sexism experiences is risky. She can do it now because her startup has failed.
* Bullies bully due to their own insecurities.
* People make assumptions. These assumptions are guided by their experiences, prejudices and stereotypes.
* The media will distort your message into the story they want to put out, regardless of whether it's what you intended on saying or not.
* Speaking out about sexism experiences is risky. She can do it now because her startup has failed.
> The worst part is that this is a self-fulfilling prophecy: if men make an assumption that women aren’t great at tech, then those men won’t teach women. Women will then start believing they aren’t great at tech, or feel alienated from the community.
That's some sexist garbage. How weak do you think women are? All it takes if male assumption to prevent you from learning things? This is just misandry. Blaming the men for your lack of desire to learn.
When I needed to learn SQL I didn't go and annoy some developer to teach me. I went and learned it.
That's some sexist garbage. How weak do you think women are? All it takes if male assumption to prevent you from learning things? This is just misandry. Blaming the men for your lack of desire to learn.
When I needed to learn SQL I didn't go and annoy some developer to teach me. I went and learned it.
The author sounds like an arrogant feminist.